Pastel Tinted Dawn
by Neko-chan -Silvered Tongue
Summary: [Moon Child] There is much unfinished business between Kei and Sho at the end of Moon Child. Thus: As they wait for the coming of dawn, they talk and finally admit things that they had previously denied, even to themselves.


Pastel-Tinted Dawn

By: Neko-chan

A/N: This is a fanfiction about the Japanese movie "Moon Child," which stars J-rock/pop singers Gackt and HYDE.  (And others, but I'm not exceptionally motivated to mention them by name. XD)  The story came about because Luce prodded me with a big, pointy stick and threatened me with Bob, her Imaginary Rabid Dog.  (Whom we all love and ph34r.  D)  So, yes~  You can blame this story on her.  This story is _dedicated _to my Wifey/Allie-chan, who is the HYDE to my Gackt.  3

**WARNING:**  I am a slash/yaoi/shounen-ai writer.  I like seeing Gackt and HYDE together.  The point of this?  "Moon Child" is a nice~ way for me to write Gackt and HYDE together and not get beaten into a bloody pulp.  So, yes~  this story is slash.

DISCLAIMER:  I don't own "Moon Child"—though I do own a _copy_ of it.  XD  Gackt and HYDE are copyrighted to themselves (though all of their fanpeople wish otherwise~).  This fanfiction/story is copyrighted to Neko-chan because if she finds out that anyone has stolen this without her permission, she would hunt them down and beat them into a senseless and bloody pulp.  Ph34r teh~ Neko.  D

- Fanfiction _DOES_ contain **spoilers** for the movie.

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The leather of the seat was warm against Sho's skin.  He leaned back, closing his eyes as he did so, smiling slightly as the ocean breeze came up from the beach below, drifting around the convertible that he and Kei were sitting in.

Dawn was two hours away—but he didn't want to think about that.

"Sho?"  The man in question opened his eyes and turned to his friend, silently giving the blonde man his full attention.  Kei frowned slightly, then continued on with his question: "Sho… why did you finally decide to come back?"

"Hn," was the noncommittal response; Kei remained silent, waiting for an answer.  The silence in the car became strained, tension thick enough to cut with a knife.  After several long moments of the silence, the blue-eyed Japanese smiled slightly and turned his attention to the sea.  "There wasn't any more point in staying away, was there?  Hana's grown up now—you made sure of that.  It didn't matter anymore if I stayed away or if I came back; Hana wasn't going to see me either way."

Kei shifted in his seat and turned his head towards Sho, a small frown still fixated upon his face.  "If that's what you think, then… why did you decide to come back _now_?" 

Sho's smile deepened, crinkling at the corners.  And yet Kei had been around Sho long enough to know that it wasn't a particularly happy smile: The expression that flitted across the blue-eyed man's face was bitter and angry.  Whether the man was angry at himself or at Kei was still open for debate.

Kei felt… uncomfortable, unnerved, at-odds—call it what you will, but Kei was wary of this new Sho.  The past decade or so had aged him in ways that his previous lifestyle had never done.  This particular Sho was quiet, thoughtful, thorough.  The old Sho was impulsive, prone recklessness.  Kei didn't know how to act around this new Sho.

After a long moment of silence, the taller man finally answered Kei's question.  "I wanted to see Hana again.  Just one more time before she left for her school.  You do realize that she's never coming back to Mallepa, yes?  She's going to make her way forward, and she's never going to look back."

"Sho… are you still angry?"

There was another noncommittal reply; Sho's expression darkened just a little bit further.  "…  Kei?  I was, in the beginning.  But you took care of Hana, so how could I stay mad at you?  You raised her and supported her and loved her—and I walked away because I was afraid of what she would think of me if she ever saw me as I am today.  Kei… you turned me into a monster to save me—but you also took away my life when you did so.  I was angry at you for a long, long time."

Kei slowly turned his face away, bringing his attention back to the ocean.  Both men gazed out over the dark water, neither willing to confront each other face to face.  Silence stretched between them—and neither spoke a word to the other as the minutes slowly ticked on by.

One hour left until dawn.

The sky was beginning to lighten near the horizon, a light blue coloring the obsidian of night where the sun would rise into a brilliant starburst of color, chasing away the darkness and all of its shadows.

Kei shivered as the birds slowly began to awake, groggily ruffling their feathers.  The birds trilled a song, welcoming the quickly coming day.  "I was scared," he whispered.  "I didn't want to lose you.  I realize now that I had made a mistake, turning you into a vampire like me.  I hate who I am, who I've become.  I live by feeding off of others—and I made you just like me.  But… you were my friend, Sho.  I didn't want to lose you.  I _couldn't_ lose you."

The blue-eyed man sighed and tilted his head back, leaning it against the seat's head rest.  His braids pricked the back of his neck; Sho shrugged elegantly, shoving them out of the way and into a more comfortable position.  "I know that, Kei," he said, shooting a glance at the blonde vampire out of the corner of his eyes.  "That's why I eventually stopped being angry at you, stopped hating you.  It's all in the past now; just forget about it.  I forgave you a long time ago."

"Thank you," Kei replied, still whispering.  He turned his head to the side so that Sho wouldn't see his expression softening.  Sho's forgiveness had meant a great deal to him, more than he would ever willingly admit to himself.

Forty-five minutes until dawn.

"Kei?"

"Hmmm?"

The cloudy expression upon Sho's face lightened and, like Kei's, it slowly began to soften.  "I never told you this because I didn't know what would happen if I had brought up the subject, but… there's no point in not saying it now.  You were never a monster, Kei.  You were who you were—and that person wasn't a monster."

The blonde man didn't reply; his face was still turned away from his friend.  Sho smiled slightly and continued to talk, watching as the waves broke upon the shore.  "Do you remember the very first time we met?  I took you home and tried to feed you to make you get better.  When the business man came to our home, looking for his money, you saved us.  You asked me, 'Aren't you afraid?'  I wasn't afraid because I knew that you would never hurt me.  I wasn't afraid because I had already begun to trust you; I had decided that you would be my friend."

'Friend.'  The word resonated within Kei, bringing him back to a night forty-five years before.  He had been told then to find a 'friend.'  The young man had brushed off the order, dismissing it in totality.  Looking back, it now touched a cord.  The vampire had never really expected to have a 'friend.'  And yet… he _did_ have a friend.  And that friend had come to mean the world to him.

Even when he had been on death row, prepared—_wanting_—to die, his mind and his thoughts had always returned back to Mallepa and to his friend.  …his thoughts had always returned to Sho.

Regrets, brooding, bitterness about himself: Everything had always seemed to melt away, fading into the night, when Sho turned that blue gaze towards him.  Kei had never had anyone cry over himself and his self-inflicted damnation.  And yet… Sho had cried.  Sho had cared for him enough to realize and feel his pain.

'Friend'?  Sho had always been more than that.

Thirty minutes until dawn.

Pastel pinks, oranges, and yellows were beginning to tint the sky—it was a riot of soft colors, the time between waking and dreaming, when all of the world is hazy and surreal.  The ocean was a shining aquamarine, pale near the horizon, but darkening to a deep sapphire as it moved further away from the edge of the world.

Kei continued to watch the ocean, eyes heavy-lidded and drooping.  The soft light of near-dawn shone upon the water, making it sparkle in mercury-tinted colors.  The blonde man watched all of this, and a memory from nearly thirty years slowly began to take shape:  Sho, a child, watching him with those blue, blue eyes of his.  Innocent and sweet—and then reaching down to steal the watch that had been on his left wrist.

"You always did like shiny and expensive things," Kei commented dryly, lips twisting up in a smile.  He turned his attention to his friend and the smile turned wicked, darkly amused.

"Eh?" Sho commented, startled from a reverie.  He blinked and directed his attention towards Kei, a puzzled look gracing his face.

Kei laughed and slumped down in his car seat, still smiling wickedly.  "I was just remembering the first time that you and I had met; you tried to steal my watch, remember?  Then, later on, you would always get angry whenever someone shot a bullet through your jacket… which, of course, would always be expensive and new.  Your clothes, your home, jewelry, your… car—this one in particular… would always be expensive and new.  Shiny things.  And it all started with my watch."

Sho gave Kei his dirtiest look, but the blonde man just laughed in reply.  Shrugging his shoulders, Sho finally succumbed to Kei's personality, the influence that the older man had always had upon him, and chuckled.  Like before—like always—there was never any point in staying mad at Kei for very long.

It felt good to laugh.

He didn't remember the last time he had laughed.  It seemed like so long ago, like forever.  Perhaps it had been forever ago, but he was laughing now.  And that was all that mattered, would ever really matter.

They had always been friends; they had always laughed together.

Fifteen minutes until dawn.

"…Kei?"

"Eh?"

"I never told you this, but Yi-Che had always loved you more than she loved me."  Lines tightened around Sho's mouth, sharpening his facial features into something alien.  "When… when the brain tumor began to affect her memory, she always called me 'Kei.'  I never told her that I was Sho, not Kei.  I didn't want to make her sad."

Kei blinked and slowly turned his head, tilting it to one side as he regarded Sho.  His expression was thoughtful and contemplative, a little bit puzzled as to why Sho had suddenly decided to tell him this.  "Why?" he finally asked.

"Because it would have broken her heart to discover that I was the one with her, had married her, not… not you."

"Were you angry about that, Sho?" Kei asked, still regarding the blue-eyed man thoughtfully.

"…no."

That particular answer surprised him.  "Why not?" the blonde man asked, still continuing his series of question and answer.

"Because I always knew that you had meant more to her than I ever could.  I was only second-best—I knew that, had known that, from the very beginning.  There was no point in trying to compete, in telling her that I was Sho—not Kei—because it would only break her heart in the end.  And because it was you that she wanted to see.  Not me."  Sho finally finished and stared down at the steering wheel of his car, eyelashes fluttering down to veil the emotions that would have otherwise been apparent in his gaze.

It was so pointless, the masks and deceptions that they put up.  Even at their most open moments, there was always something hidden away, concealed so that the other would never really and truly know what he was thinking.

He was tired of the self-inflicted porcelain mask.

Five minutes until dawn.

"Kei?  The sun's coming out."

"I know, Sho.  Doesn't the sea look beautiful?  Look at how it shines in the light—like a scattering of diamonds tossed upon blue velvet.  I'd forgotten how breathtaking it was in the sunlight.  A long time ago, I had begun to remember, but… from then until now, I had somehow forgotten."

Sho smiled in answer and watched the rising sun with his friend.  It slowly filled the sky, butter yellow and warm.  The blue-eyed man hadn't watched the sun rise for over a decade, but he was now—and Kei was with him.

He was happy, something he hadn't been for a very long time.  Sho closed his eyes and tilted his face upward, letting the breeze sift through his hair as the dawn kissed his cheek.

"Kei?"

"Hmmm?"

"Daisuke."

And Kei smiled as the sun burned away the shadows of the night.

~Owari~

::End::

A/N: Firstly—I'm usually bad at characterization for the first story or two.  I usually improve after that, I promise~  ^^;;  Anyway, as you could see, the story took place in the two hours before dawn when Sho (Gackt) and Kei (HYDE) are sitting in Sho's car, waiting for the rising sun.  There was a lot of things left hanging at the end of the movie and I wanted to write this to answer my own questions.  I just hope that I wasn't the only one who enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing the story.  ('Cause… that would be bad, if no one else liked it.  ^^;;)  Secondly—I'm planning on creating a series of stories (probably mostly one-shots) for "Moon Child," so expect more stories from me in the future.  …as long as Luce continues to prod me with her stick, that is.  XDXDXD

Finally~~  "daisuke" can (_to my knowledge_) be loosely translated to "I like you" or "I love you."  According to one of my friends who's relatively proficient in Japanese, the Japanese people rarely use "aishiteru;" she says that "daisuke" is much more common.  ^^;;  So, yes~  There's your Japanese lesson for today.  XD

3


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